2010 ticket sales rocket

Sharp increases in ticket requests are expected, says CEO of the Local Organising Committee Danny Jordaan.

With only two weeks to go until the end of the third ticket sales phase, more than 700 000 ticket applications for the 2010 Soccer World Cup have been received, says Fifa.

In December, the football organisation reported the third ticketing sales phase for the soccer tournament had seen the number of tickets applied for hit the 500 000 mark within the first 10 days. Over 386 300 of those tickets were requested by South African residents, while 114 237 tickets applied for came from the rest of the world.

Tickets for the third phase became available on 4 December, after the draw announcing which teams would play in which pool. Over the weekend, the Web site received 157 000 ticket requests.

The current sales phase will run until 22 January and tickets will be awarded following a random draw, which will be held next month. In total, one million tickets have been made available for all 64 matches and categories for this phase, including a limited number for the opening match and the final.

Local Organising Committee CEO Danny Jordaan previously stated that an increase in the demand for tickets was expected after the final draw of the teams in December, and more would be done to ensure all processes go smoothly.

The soccer governing body says ticket applications came from more than 170 countries. Of the 700 000 applications received, 520 960 were from South African residents. Local tickets have accounted for more than three-quarters of ticket applications, while the US leads the rest of the world in overall ticketing applications.

In the third phase, US fans have applied for 22 942 tickets, followed by the UK with 20 000 applications. Mexico recorded 7 981 applications, followed by Germany with 7 697 and Australia with 6 277, while Brazil recorded 4 760 ticket requests.

In January, the first allocation of tickets became available. Fifa put 753 000 tickets up for bidding, and 1.8 million applications were received. Another 100 000 tickets became available in April, and the Web site received 180 000 applications within the first hour.

Fifa maintains that despite previous complaints and the rising demand for tickets, its Web site has held up.